The Chris Moeller Archives

Stand up, you're rocking the boat

Welcome to New York City. Check your values at the door.

It sounds like the subtitle of a sermon at a fundamentalist church, but it's actually the first thought that came to my mind when I read accounts of baseball slugger Carlos Delgado's first meeting with his new employer. Delgado, you see, is one of the vocal critics of the war in Iraq, and in protest, has refused to stand for the playing of "God Bless America" the last two years as a member, first, of the Toronto Blue Jays, and then, of the Florida Marlins. Last week, Delgado was dealt to the New York Mets as part of the Marlins' latest shameful fire sale, and, in a press conference yesterday, said he would follow the Mets' policy of standing for the song, not causing "any distractions for the ballclub."

Eleven months ago, upon his arrival in Miami, Delgado was singing a different tune. "The reason I didn't stand for 'God Bless America' was because I didn't like the way they tied 'God Bless America' and 9-11 to the war in Iraq, in baseball," he said. Here, here. The slugger is also opposed to the U.S. military's long-time use of his native Puerto Rico and the island of Vieques for biological weapons testing.

Most chilling Monday were the fascist comments made by Mets COO Jeff Wilpon: "He's (Delgado) not going to put himself before the team. So he's going to have his own political views, which he's going to keep to himself." Brrrrrrr! I don't remember the Mets telling Al Leiter he couldn't campaign publicly for President Bush, or their refusing to sponsor his "job swap" with an Air Force boom operator. No one in baseball told Curt Schilling or Roger Clemens that they had to keep their political views to themselves. Drayton McLaine(Hou) and Bill DeWitt (StL) are among the large number of franchise owners across the game who were major fundraisers for President Bush. Rafael Palmeiro and Arizona's Luis Gonzalez were among the players who contributed the maximum amount, by law, to the President's 2004 campaign, and both made public appearances on his behalf. An whopping number of players make religious gestures on the field.

As for the issue of team distraction, his Toronto mates accepted his right to express his opinion. In fact, he had explained himself to them and been exercising the protest for a full month before the local newspaper even picked up the story. Fans didn't react until the story reached the New York Times, and Delgado was booed at Yankee Stadium. The burly firstbaseman didn't seem to care. He had donated $50,000 to New York City police and firefighters in the wake of the World Trade Center attack, he stood for the song during the period between 9-11 and the Iraqi invasion, and he's been correct to point out that the playing of the song had disappeared from ballparks early in the 2002 season and didn't return until the bombing of Baghdad began in '03.

The Mets clearly don't care about Delgado's personal beliefs, but it's really dishonest for the brass to pin the issue to fan reaction or the rights of Delgado's teammates to effectively pursue the pennant. This is about the Wilpons' personal beliefs. The family has never had held publicly-political partisans, but Jeff's father, Fred, the Mets' Chairman and CEO, maxed out his personal contributions ($2,000) to Bush/Cheney '04. Jeff has worked closely with the old man. He toiled for the dad's equity company in Manhattan before joining the front office of dad's baseball team. The son's very active-- and nepotistic-- role with the Mets caused Fred's former partner, Nelson Doubleday, to seek Jeff's removal from the field, dugout, and clubhouse in the late 1990s. It eventually contributed to the dissolution of the team partnership.

I sense that yesterday's announcement is the same kind of political grandstanding that the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY engaged in in 2003 when Museum President Dale Petroskey cancelled a 15th anniversary celebration of the film "Bull Durham" when its stars, Susan Sarandan and Tim Robbins, voiced public opposition to the Iraqi invasion. Naturally, the cancellation was announced just weeks after the museum had welcomed to its convention facility a gathering of the New York State Republican Party, and just a year before and after Petroskey himself contributed financially to partisan political efforts ($300 to House Republican candidate Sherwood Boehlert in both 2002 and 2004.)

In 1996, the NBA suspended Denver Nuggets star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf without pay for refusing to face the flag during the national anthem because of his self-described "Muslim conscience." His protest was more visible (although equally valid, in my eyes.) He would turn his back from the court and raise his palms to his face, for my-described "solemn religious reflection." Abdul-Rauf believed that the flag and the anthem symbolized tyranny and oppression. The end result of the story was his blacklisting from the league.

There's obviously a legal protection in place for majority-held religious expressions in professional sports. NFL players engage in pre- and post-game prayers. Even public high school and college prayers have only been limited when they've been found to be coupled with "no pray/no play" guidelines, such as those alleged by Memphis State football players in 1984. Shouldn't expressions of a civil and political nature be equally protected by law? They should be-- and are.

Delgado has evidently agreed to this compromise with the Mets, one in which he's the only party asked to compromise, but it sticks in my craw that he seems to have made such a complete about-face in just one year's time. Last winter, when he had the leverage of free agency on his side, he reportedly spurned the Mets after discussing the issue with Wilpon, and then getting an impression during negotiations with GM Omar Minaya that he was only being pursued because of his marketing appeal to Hispanics living in the Big Apple. Now he's been traded (shades of Curt Flood when he fought the Reserve Clause in the early '70s,) and I fear that he feels he needs to make the best of a less than ideal situation. That stinks. His rights never interfered with the rights of his employer or his co-workers, and I hope Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader will voice their public support for the universalism of Delgado's liberty in the same manner they did for Terrell Owens.

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Speaking of Owens, I hope professional football players realize how rotten their union is. I can understand sports fans cursing the baseball players' guild for its constant stubbornness during labor disputes, but it would be refreshing if the athletes in these other sports realize the sacrifices long-ago baseball players made to achieve the rights they have today.

The latest evidence of a putrid league labor policy is Terrell Owens' benching. Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter voiced support for the Eagles' receiver today, but the matter would have to reach the antitrust subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee for him to do anything about it. An independent arbiter has already upheld the penalty as consistent with the labor guidelines.

I've been a critic of Owens, and I admired the Eagles' courage in suspending their disruptive receiver, but suspensions have limitations, and now that Owens has served the league's maximum for his offense, it is downright unfair, even un-American, for the Eagles to deprive the wide receiver of his right to take his services elsewhere, rather than to remain inactive. As Specter points out, Owens hasn't committed a crime, only a breech of contract.

This is just one of the many fiascos caused by the NFL's weak collective bargaining agreement. Veteran players and all of the owners wind up rich, thanks to a lucrative TV deal, so you don't hear many complaints about it, but hundreds of lesser-skilled players are being deprived of their share of the pot while still risking life and limb. Some earn just a few thousand dollars in brief careers, but face high rates of disability and premature death. No NFL contracts are guaranteed, and an immediate end is always one tackle away, so we see a slew of contractual holdouts in training camp each year, leading to poorer play results for teams and fans. The players have to grab what they can, while they can, and with just a little bit of luck, they won't become a Mike Utley or a Korey Stringer.

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What a day! Baseball, football, and now, basketball. ESPN.com has assembled their all-time teams for 64 college basketball programs. Aside from the fact that then pitting the assembled teams against one other is really stupid, and that they embarassed themselves by putting Iowa in their NCAA tourney and Iowa State in their NIT, they did a pretty good job. (Half the NIT bracket could beat that collection of Hawkeye talent.) The Final Four is comprised of Alcindor's UCLA, Jordan's North Carolina, Ewing's Georgetown, and Maravich's LSU. (If I were Kentucky, Indiana, or Kansas, I would be pissed. Kentucky, seeded eleventh?)
My all-time Cyclones team would be the same as theirs:

Point guard- Jamal Tinsley 1999-2001
Shooting guard- Jeff Hornacek 1983-86
Small forward- Jeff Grayer 1985-88
Power forward- Marcus Fizer 1997-2000
Center- Don Smith 1965?-68

One final note, in case you inspected the lists on-line: I fully respect Smith's right to change his name later in his life to Zaid Abdul-Aziz. I even think it 's cool. But he was Don Smith when he played in Ames. It's political correctness run amuk that Iowa State honors him as Abdul-Aziz in their list of retired numbers. Don Smith was too great a player to be forgotten. UCLA still refers to Kareem as Lew Alcindor. This is because Alcindor, the player, was legendary.
Also, they don't change the name of female basketball stars if they wind up getting married.

posted by CM @ 2:23 PM